It was during his stay at the Mouths of Sirion that Pengolodh did the majority of his work. Basing on information obtained from the refugees of Doriath, he made copies and extracts of documents written in Cirth,[1] possibly preserving them as an active writing system; possibly he must have stayed in Lindon for at least a while after the War of Wrath, so that the Dúnedain could copy his work.

Pengolodh also appears spelled Pengolod, Pengoloð,[2]Pengoloth, and Pengoloþ — the ending in all cases representing the voiced same sound.[source?]

Other Versions of the Legendarium

Pengolodh does not appear in any of the canon works of Middle-earth, but in The History of Middle-earth he is given as the author of many works, including the Annals of Beleriand, a work which was developed by Tolkien at the same time as The Silmarillion, and from which Christopher Tolkien drew much information to establish the published Silmarillion. Various late essays by Tolkien dealing with linguistics are presented as being the work of Pengolodh, including the remarkable work Quendi and Eldar.

Because of Pengolodh's nature as a literary device, he does not appear actively as a protagonist in any of the stories. All information about his life come from biographical notes written by Tolkien.

Early Tolkien texts stated that, after removing to Tol Eressëa, Pengolodh lived in a village called Tavrobel (or Tathrobel). Centuries later Ælfwine spoke with him there. The figure of Gilfanon, which fulfilled a similar role as a chronicler of the annals of Beleriand in earlier works, probably became this character as well in Tolkien's mind.

Notes

↑ The essay "Quendi and Eldar" never explicitly mentions that Pengolodh was taught Khuzdul, but in a different account of his life it is stated that he learned Khuzdul "in its archaic form as used in the habitations of the Dwarves in Ered Lindon" (J.R.R. Tolkien, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals and Related Writings — Part Two" (edited by Patrick H. Wynne), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 48, December 2005, p. 6 (Note 3)).